~ Jenn in Real (Mid) Life: Cupcakes, Dachshunds & Auntdom, Oh My!

Monthly Archives: December 2014

I love the mail. I have loved the mail since I was a kid. I remember making silly construction paper mail boxes to hang on my bedroom door, for my mom to put my mail in. Because you know just how much mail kids get.

I admit that one of the highlights of my day is seeing what we have gotten in the mail. It is true, that as an adult, I get more bills than other mail but it is still an adventure. We have a P.O. Box and I think part of the reason why we continue to keep it, is because somewhere in my sad little brain I think of it as an adventure to go get the mail.

I remember as a child writing away for free stickers or information packets. One year I wrote to every Major League Baseball team to request a schedule. I wish that I could explain why I did this, but I can’t really. Well, other than I love baseball and I love getting mail. I mean at the time that was 30 potential pieces of mail that came to me.

I had multiple pen pals from other countries. I wrote letters to my cousins. All for the love of the correspondence. I am a little sad that this era is gone. I do love the ease of a text message, but it does not have the specialness of getting a hand written letter in the mail. It was knowing that the person sending you this treat had taken the time to sit and write to you. They spent a small part of their day thinking about you.

I realized the other day, while at my P.O. Box, that one of my favorite parts of the Holiday season was sending and receiving Christmas Cards. I liked that those people took a little time to actually send you a card. Now, most people order their photo cards from Costco, our house included. But, it is still that investment of time. I made an attempt to take a second to send a happy thought to every person/family that we sent Christmas cards out to this year. (Those of you that read my blog, hope you felt it!)

It saddens me that Christmas Cards are a dying art. (I think that greeting card industry as a whole is a dying art.) I have noticed over the last few years that regular boxed cards are not as plentiful. The full aisle of cards that used to exist every year at Target is not a partial aisle shared with endless gift bags.

There is a part of me that wants to start a trend to bring back Christmas cards or we could even call it Holiday correspondence. (#BringBackChristmasCards , anyone?) I will take that Costco photo card any day, because it means that my friends took that time out for me. Plus seeing all those pictures is pretty nice.

Now, I am not going to give up my technology, but I might make a little more effort to send a note to friends this year. And you definitely won’t see me giving up the Christmas cards.

So, I hope that your Holiday season is cruising along slowly. And I hope that your mailbox is filled with Christmas cards.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband finished up his third year as a football referee for a local association. He works at local high school and youth games. He truly loves doing it and I could never not support something that makes him happy. The truth of the matter is, I kind of dig him doing it too.

Ed loves sports. He played sports growing up, and continues to participate in some local rec leagues for various other sports. It is part of his hard wiring. He has an amazing mind for stats and dates and teams and all that. I have become much more of a sports fan than I ever was thanks to him. So, I can see that the desire to participate as an official is somewhat natural. Had we had children, I have no doubt that he would have coached on some level.

It is pretty cool to watch him as a referee. He knows what he is doing. It makes me proud to see him have such command of the field. Granted, he is not alone out there, he is part of a crew, but he has such confidence. There is truly something about seeing the person that you love really take pride and have joy in something that they do. Not to mention, it is exciting every week to see where he will be scheduled and who is on his crew. I have met a few of the other officials but I hear so much about them, I feel like I know them. There is a great deal of camaraderie in officiating.

When my oldest nephew played football, and we still sat in the stands with the other parents/family, we would overhear the people around us complaining about a call. Everything is always blamed on the refs. They would always assume that the refs come from the town of the opposing team. When the truth is, they just didn’t know the rules. Now, I am a little more defensive because one of those refs is mine. Refs are human and at times calls are wrong. After all they are human, but they take a great deal of time learning the rules. Rule changes happen every year, they have meetings and discussions about these things. They take tests that they have to pass. Officials take these things seriously. I have corrected people on FB, who were complaining about the refs in their kids youth game. I guess when in doubt blame the zebras.

One thing that I can assure you is that the referee’s do not hold a grudge against your team or city or your kids for that matter. These men truly take pride in their performance as an official. And they love the game.

So, Ed is packing up his ref bag, and hanging is uniforms in the back of the closet for the season. I am sure that he will not miss the sore muscles from running, or the rainy, muddy fields. But I do know that he will miss reffing. And I will just a bit too.

Don’t hate on the stripes, folks! They are a necessary part of the game. Zebras are people too!

TA-DA!

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